Abstract
Recent research showed that an inclusive museum website played a positive role in increasing visitors’ curiosity to visit museum physically. Digital images and online programs can enhance the museum experience for visitors with varying backgrounds, interests, and knowledge levels (Kabassi, 2016). The Toledo Museum of Art is located in Toledo, Ohio, with over 30,000 artefacts and 45 galleries. With the question of how online museum impacting in-person visiting experience, this project is intended to evaluate both the online and in-person visiting experiences as a reference for the museum to continue improving their designs both virtually and physically. This research is conducted in two stages. Firstly, the research compares the websites between the Toledo Museum of Art and “the Twenty Best Museums and Galleries in the World” ranked by TimeOut. This comparison will be based on six categories: accessibility, navigability, breadth of information, depth of information, inclusiveness, and visual quality. Through this analysis, the website quality of the Toledo Museum of Art can be clearly identified. Secondly, through participant observations and interviews of the museum visitors, some representative samples can be analyzed with qualitative research methods. These interviewees were selected based on age, gender, education background, career, and hobby. They answer questions regarding their motivations, frequency of visiting, and personal interests. Meanwhile, they rate how helpful the museum website for their in-person visits. Through this two-fold process, the roles of online museum and its impact on physical experiences can be contributed to the future development of museum studies.
Presenters
Yong HuangAssistant Professor, Architecture, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—From Democratic Aesthetics to Digital Culture
KEYWORDS
Inclusiveness, Online Museum, Museum as Public Space
